Public servant

 

This is a misnomer if I ever saw one.  We think about our politicians who are supposed to be representatives of "We the People" in our government system referring to themselves as "public servants".  This is a government "of the people, by the people and for the people", and those representatives have traditionally through the years been called "public servants."  Those elected to offices throughout our land, especially to state and federal offices, have made careers out of their offices when they can.  Oftentimes, however, instead of following what the framers of our government envisioned as "citizen leadership" with people stepping up to serve the electorate and all others who did not vote for them, returning back to their profession and home after serving a term or two, they have found ways to be re-elected for many terms making the office a career that even provides retirement benefits.

 

Those changes from citizen leadership to career politicians has yielded a process that has become a culture of political leadership that goes well beyond the representation of those whose interests matched the person elected for the first term.  Having gained "seniority" the politician also gained power and position through constant re-election.  Having gained power and authority, the politician begins to garner favor among the "special interest" groups that supply more tangible benefits to the politician that exceeds the "will" of those constituents who initially elected him/her to the high office.  We now find representatives of our government making voting decisions based on poll results that go well beyond the local constituents.  We find politicians voting on spending plans along "party" lines that benefit people in other locations other than local districts.  "Favors" are exchanged for votes with politicians voting for policies and laws that go well beyond the will of the people who first elected them.

 

Now we are witnessing a corruption of power with career bureaucrats that have been appointed or hired by the politicians who have created careers for themselves.  There is a "culture of power" obtained by those in "government" who wield that power to sway politicians and impose their will on the people to gain what the culture of power is seeking.  We witness that with the records from reporters and editors in the Associated Press (AP) being collected by the very government department that should be upholding the laws for We the People.  Instead we witness the erosion of privacy and a bit of the Constitution the representatives are obliged to uphold and protect.  We are witnessing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) wielding power to target conservative groups whose ideology does not agree with the power brokers in the government agency.  Now we are being told the IRS is going to be the oversight government agency that will implement the healthcare for every American.  Will they really be true public servants, or will they make servants out of the public?

 

Is it any wonder the American people are losing trust in those politicians who are supposed to protect the rights of We the People?  They are no longer public servants, they are overlords in control of the people who have been made the "servants" to an overreaching government.

 

Jim Killebrew       



Founding Fathers

Through the years Historians have written volumes about America's Founding Fathers.  At least four of them who were numbered among the most important became the President of the newly established United States of America.  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison were distinguished not only as Founding Fathers, but leaders through their Presidential terms.  Other recognized Founding Fathers included Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay.

These men were visionaries for sure; they were leaders in freedom and independence.  They risked their lives to break the tyranny of repression and injustice brought by unfair taxation and force from the rule of Great Britain.  These were men of character, integrity and high honor.  They believed in the principle of freedom, independence, self-rule, with power derived from the people and leadership directed from their Creator.  But one ingredient in their formula for freedom is not often examined.

Yes, these men individually were consecrated to the idea of freedom and they put their minds, souls and talents into the creation and development of a Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Revolutionary War and the United States Constitution.  But if they were only a small group of educated, insightful, well-intentioned group of patriotic elitists who tried to form an idea into a reality for the entire country, they likely would have failed.

It was their countrymen who provided the fuel for the Founding Fathers to launch into the realization of their ideals of self-government and freedom from tyranny.  I suspect that people throughout the Thirteen Colonies had experienced the weight of oppression delivered by a government thousands of miles away that tried to impose on the New World population the Monarchial Rules of yesteryear that frankly did not fit any longer.  The population of the Colonies had gelled to the point of having a commonality of their sense of justice.  They contrasted the British garrisons dotted throughout the land with the vastness of freedom that lay ahead through the birth of a new nation that was experiencing pains of renewal and regeneration.

With like-minded countrymen throughout the Colonies the Founding Fathers were able to spark the fire of revolt that would change all of their lives forever.  Countrymen who were just as smart, just as educated and just as committed to freedom and justice as were the individuals who rose to the level of Founding Fathers were willing to commit their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to self-govern.  As those ideas were formulated into words that would eventually give rise to hope in the future for individual independence I suspect there were many "Patrick Henrys" across the Colonies who were ready and willing to sound the alarm and fight for freedom.

And so it is, as we celebrate each Independence Day, we look not only to the leaders of this great nation that has grown likely well beyond the wildest dreams of our Founding Fathers, but we look to ourselves, our countrymen who still believe in freedom, independence and self-rule with the Divine Guidance from our Creator to keep us on course.

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